Customer Reviews

Heroes of the Hardcourt: Ranking Pro Basketball's 100 Greatest Players, and introducing a whole new way of looking at the game

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There are so many books out there with their own opinions on just who are the greatest basketball players ever yet most of them are based on someone else's opinion or the other. This is the only book I've seen that goes beyond the opinions and beyond the numbers and looks at everything. For eg, I always thought that the Big O' was one of the best ever (like in the top 10) until I read this book. Now I'm more than convinced that he doesn't belong even in the top 20. Here's a guy who had great numbers in the regular season but totally tanked in the playoffs. And on top of that he only won 1 championship. I'm sorry but you can't be all that great if you could only win one title.

I agree that people can disagree on who are the top ten greatest players, and I do differ from this author on some of those ranks, but in the end I can see where his rankings are coming from and whose to say mine is any better than his. I can't say for sure that George Mikan was better than Kareem (in fact I doubt it) but I do agree that he won more titles than Kareem, and maybe Kareem would not have won all those championships had Magic not landed in LA. So in the end I really like this book. It has made me think, really think about why I had some guys ranked higher than others. The author uses a whole list of factors, not just statistics, but also MVP awards, the number of championships won and category titles (scoring, rebounding, blocks, steals) to better determine just who is the best ever. Kudos to a book well written. I am now firmly a believer that MJ is the best ever and this book helps confirm why.

Just finished reading this book and it is great. It proves that MJ is the best player ever. That is something many if us knew but just couldn't explain as well as this book.

What I also like about this book is how to compare the current stars with many of the older players. For eg. I never saw Wilt Chamberlain play but after reading this I can better compare Wilt vs Shaq, or even against Kareem.

Great book. Sensational work on it. Every true basketball fan should own their own copy.

I bought this book because I am a very avid basketball fan. I also am very interested in basketball statistics and what they mean and how they can and should be used. Mr. Thompson approaches the question of the greatest basketball player ever with a unique methodology that I found intriguing. Unfortunately, I also found it flawed, and was also dismayed and put off by Thompson's ignorance of the already-growing community of statistical analysts in basketball.

One very welcome and useful section of the book is Thompson's opening on the very early history of the game. He spends about 30 pages on the time period between the game's creation and the formation of the NBA. While it's not comprehensive, it's a good introduction to the key figures in basketball before the NBA was formed.

Mr. Thompson's methodology, in short, is terribly short-sighted. He attempts to quantify every meaningful accomplishment in basketball - statistical performance, most valuable player awards and other awards, championships and playoff performance, and also all-star selection and performance. His methods would be welcomed under other circumstances, but he felt compelled, for some reason, to not only trademark his term "Performance Efficiency Rating", but to withhold certain portions of his formulas because of a pending patent. He further states that his measure is the most comprehensive measure of player greatness ever developed. It certainly is comprehensive, but the flaws in the formulas he uses are evident to those who study the game on a deeper level. The flaws in his evaluation of player statistics - points, rebounds, assists, etc. - are the most evident of all, notwithstanding his taking the highly appropriate step of adjusting everything to a per-minute basis. I would also like to know how he knows how to weight every possible factor correctly, or even why he thinks non-statistical accomplishments are quantifiable.

Further, Thompson is either willfully dismissive or accidentally ignorant of the aforementioned community of statistical analysts already present and growing in influence. I don't know why he felt it necessary to keep his work proprietary, but it does him and his work a disservice by making him appear self-important, and by closing his formulas to mainstream evaluation and constructive feedback. If he felt that his work was worthy of widespread use, I believe he would have been better served to allow others who love and follow the game to see exactly what he was doing.

Finally, the book itself is not very well written. There are many, many errors in punctuation - such as a pronounced lack of question marks where they should be, and the word "though" repeatedly misspelled as "thou". Whether this is the publisher's fault or Mr. Thompson's, it certainly should never have happened. Other authors (such as John Hollinger, who was mentioned in one of the other reviews here) produce books that not only demonstrate that they know basketball, but that are entertaining and well-written. Much more importantly, other authors such as Hollinger haven't yet assumed that they've found the Holy Grail of analysis. They're constantly trying to improve upon what they've already done, and they seek the input of others - something that Thompson apparently didn't consider. They also know that "statistical analysis" means a lot more than mashing a bunch of numbers together and adding them up.

I mean no disrespect to Mr. Thompson. The project he undertook must have been extensive and time-consuming. But it doesn't offer any real advances in common knowledge, and the poor writing detracts from any attempt to take it seriously. As I mentioned to a colleague of mine, "I would have been better served checking this book out from the library instead of buying it."

Over the years I have read numerous sports books and articles, watched countless numbers of games, listened to scores of commentators and I must say I have NEVER read a book that captures the full spectrum of sports analysis like this book. Heroes of the Hardcourt is such a great book in that it takes the reader through a history of professional basketball in very clear and concise manner, before launching into the most scientific explanation of evaluating basketball players that I have ever read. I thought it would be a highly scientific and technical book but it was a surprisingly easy read for a book this detailed.

Secondly, though the book differed from my initial views of the top five greatest players of all-time I have actually come to recognize that my top five was probably now not correct. My top five was as follows:

1. Michael Jordan
2. Wilt Chamberlain
3. Bill Russell
4. Magic Johnson
5. Larry Bird

After reading the book I am now more convinced that the true top five are:
1. Michael Jordan
2. Magic Johnson
3. Wilt Chamberlain
4. Bill Russell
5. Shaquille O'Neal

Because the author used not just regular season stats but also playoff and All-Star statistics, and included such things as MVPs won, scoring titles, rebounding titles, etc., and championships won he is able to show the overall performance of each player and compare them accordingly.

Simply the best book out there dealing with this topic.

I recently read that book my Elliot Kalb (Who's better, whose best). I had to scratch my read as it was an absolute load of crap. It is all based on opinions. This book however was a refreshing change. It did not ask anyone about there stupid opinion or anything like that. Instead it relied on cold, hard facts. It looked at how many championships each player won and how much they contributed to the wins. It that sense Robert Horry is NOT listed in the top 100 because he was just a free loader. He jumped from team to team and piggybacked his way to 6 championships.

Anyone who wants to understand how to analyze players should read this book. It lays it out in real simple manner. The author is a professor who knows how to explain stuff. Look at this. MJ is no 1 because he wins championships and he is the primary reason why they won. Bill Russell won the most championships (11) but wasn't the primary reason for their scoring, kind of like Ben Wallace on the Pistons today only better. And Wilt Chamberlain has the best stats but only won 2 titles. Therefore MJ is the best overall because he wins and if the reason they win. I don't think I can explain it like the author but it is an awesome book. Best I ever read on basketball.

The author started with a history of professional basketball which includes a timeline of the major events, teams and players that played the game. The book also proposed an alternative way of evaluating the best professional basketball players for a team not just by using free agents, scouting,gut feelings, or draft picks but acutually using a scientific approach to anaylze the talents and athletic abilites of a player.This book is awesome and should be read basketball purists and fanatics-for the love of the game.

Although there has been a bunch of work lately trying to rank basketball players this book is at the top of the class. I've read John Hollinger's Pro Basketball and it is nothing more than meaningless stats. This book however goes behind the stats and shows exactly how performance should be measured. In the end I believe that a system like this will be used in the future to determine the MVP adn even All-Star selections. I concur that this is one of the best books ever written on the subject.

This is the approach they should use to select All-Star players and MVP instead of voting for them. Solid work.